Two governors of the People's Democratic Party who had defected to the All Progressives Congress(APC) on Sunday met with President Goodluck Jonathan for almost five hours, in a reconciliation meeting.
The two governors are Rabiu Kwankwanso of Kano State and Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State.
However the meeting ended in a deadlock, as a visibly enraged Wamakko told journalists after the meeting which ended at about 3am this morning, that they had come to tell the President where they stand.
Kwankanso and Wamakko arrived the first Lady's residence which was the venue for the meeting, about an hour after one of the aggrieved PDP governors, Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, arrived.
Aliyu, and the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), were already seated at the venue when Kwankwaso and Wamakko arrived. The Chairman, Board of Trustees of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih, who also arrived before them went to confer with the President inside his residence before joining them at the venue.
Jonathan and Vice -President Namadi Sambo arrived the venue at about 9.50pm.
At 10pm, other PDP governors who had earlier met at the Akwa Ibom State Governors Lodge in Asokoro arrived the venue of the meeting and the meeting commenced.
Those who arrived alongside the PDP Governors’ Forum Chairman, Godswill Akpabio, were the governors of Abia, Kebbi, Kogi, Katsina, Bauchi, Plateau, Enugu, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Ebonyi, Kaduna and Taraba States.
At about 1:40am on Monday morning, the President, Vice President Namadi Sambo, the BOt Chairman, and the NSA left the meeting and the governors continued till about 3am.
Approached by journalists after the meeting, Wamakko said they could not turn down the President's invitation, but had told him that they no longer belonged to the mainstream PDP. While speaking Kwankwanso who did not look comfortable with his utterance quickly walked away from journalists.
"Well the meeting went on very well because some of us came here as governors. On PDP matter and our position has been known. On behalf of the five of us, I have already briefed Mr. President our position as G-5 that we are no longer in the PDP mainstream and that we are already in another party. But as a President of this country, if he calls us, we will come and listen to him and respect him as a leader of our country, otherwise what we had there was mostly a PDP affair" he said.
When asked why he and colleague took the pains to sit through the whole meeting, despite it being a PDP affair, he said " We had to tell the President and Chairman of the BOT our position. We can’t just be going about talking, we had to come and tell them the
truth where the truth must be told and that is why we came here".
However in a swift effort to address what Wamakko had said, the PDP Governors’ Forum Chairman, the Akwa Ibom Governor, cautioned that the matter should be addressed based on states and not a group thing.
Akpabio who also noted that the issue of APC was not discussed at the meeting, quickly added that if one member of the PDP in a state decided to leave that does not mean the others will go with him.
He also noted that in the previous dialogue meeting, the G2 governors attended and the Sunday's meeting also received G3 governors.
"I think the meeting we had was part of the dialogue Mr. President had talked about. Months back at that time we had the G-7 governors. The last time we met, we met with the G-2 governors and today we had the G-3 and so it is part of the continuing dialogue to ensure harmony and peace in the party and Mr. President is not relenting. He is very serious about consulting with all strata and all the bigwigs in the party, particularly the governors who are aggrieved with a view to bringingeverybody on board and ensuring harmony and unity of the party and the governors. I don’t think the issue of APC was discussed".
Asked if following Wamakko's statement, all hope was lost on the reconciliation, Akpabio said "Please, you have to distinguish the issue state-by-state. You have to take the issues state-by-state. I wasn’t here when the governor of Sokoto was talking to you and I know that the governor of Sokoto State is just one member of the PDP in Sokoto and if he says he is leaving the PDP, I am sure there are still thousands of other members of PDP
who will say we are staying within the PDP. So you cant say all hop is lost. How can all hope be lost? The party is very robust, large and as much as possible we are interested in keeping our leaders together. That is why, we as governors are all here. We will continue dialogue, this is not going to be the end. We have narrowed down few issues which we are taking up with Mr. President and the governors are also going to discuss. You saw the number of governors today, we are more I think 17 or 18 governors and you can be sure that the number will keep increasing".
On the issues that have lingered for so long? Akpabio said "I think the issues differ from state to state. They are all family issues. They are mostly issues that linger within the PDP and we believe strongly that the President is very poised and determined to ensure there is harmony".
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